a world of café stories

The Coffee Collective: Godthåbsvej, Copenhagen

By KENNY MAH and CK LIM

Sunday morning in Copenhagen has the air of barely-woken-up-ness. The city seems to be still stuck in slumber.

When I arrive at the café, its doors had just opened. Inside there is only a single barista, still deep in his calibration tasks. I’m the first customer of the day. Sweet.

This Godthåbsvej coffee shop is the third and newest of The Coffee Collective “bars”; it’s also their head office and roaster. Housed in an industrial building in Frederiksberg, the café has an aged charm that extends to the aforementioned barista. I had already visited their original shop at Jægersborggade and this has a different feel, albeit with the same attention to natural light and space.

One of the benefits of being the first and only customer (for a while anyway) is the opportunity to sit down relax and have a conversation with the barista. After glancing at the menu, my immediate choice is the award-winning Esmeralda Special Geisha.

However, it’s always fun to step outside of my comfort zone (and obvious choices) so I ask the barista for his recommendations. He questions me carefully and upon realizing I enjoy more fruity flavors, he chooses three different beans for me and makes me three cups of brewed black coffee.

He doesn’t tell me what the beans are until after I’ve tasted them and I shan’t mention them here either. Suffice to say, I enjoy every sip and our conversation that run the gamut of everything from what life is like as a young Dane to those butter cookies all non-Danish folks associate with Denmark.

it looks like a really quiet sunday morning here … guess all the locals will come streaming in here after they wake up at 11am or noon! 🙂 and yes, i half-expected to see a butter cookie beside that cup of coffee 🙂

[…] are three coffee shops run by The Coffee Collective, including the roastery and head office at Godthåbsvej and the centrally located Torvehallerne café. But if this is your first visit to The Coffee […]